During catastrophic processes of environmental variations of a thermodynamic system, such as rapid temperature decrease, many different and complex patterns often form. To understand such phenomena, a general mechanism is proposed based on the competition between heat transfer and conversion of hear to other energy forms. We apply it to the smectic-A filament growth process during the quench-induced isotropic to smectic-A phase transition. Analytical forms for the buckling patterns are derived and we find good agreement with experimental observation [H. Naito, M. Okuda, and Ou-Yang Zhong-can, Phys. Rev. E 55, 1655 (1997)]. The present work strongly indicates that rapid cooling will lead to structural transitions in the smectic-A filament at the molecular level to optimize heat conversion. The force associated with this pattern formation process is estimated to be on the order of 10(-1) pN. [S1063-651X(98)04311-6].